S*** People Say to People with Disabilities

These are all actual words said by actual people to either me or to people I know well. In brackets is the individual who uttered them. I think we can all learn a lot from this list.

"You don't seem like you have Borderline Personality Disorder; you're not manipulative." (Friend)

"You can't have an eating disorder, you're a normal weight." (Dietitian)

"How can you have X disability? You're black!" (Take your pick, h/t to J Applebee for that!)

"I don't do drama." (Usually massive apologists for awful people)

"You can't have BPD, you're not a twat. People with BPD act like twats." (Friend)

"We wouldn't be self-diagnosing there a bit, would we?" (Stranger)

"You don't need care hours for housework any more." (Local authority, MK)

"I don't think it's chemical. I think you just need to go for more CBT." (Social worker, Milton Keynes)

"You have to pay 20GBP more this month for care. No, we can't explain why." (MULTIPLE local authorities, UK)

"You make eye contact; you can't have Aspergers'." (Media, doctors, therapists, friends)

"You hug people; you can't be ASD." (See previous)

"You're not socially awkward enough to have ASD." (See previous)

"You claim you care about people with disabilities, yet you parked near a dropped kerb for 4 minutes. Yeah, we don't care that you paid for your ticket and weren't obstructing traffic." - (Local council that shall remain nameless for now)

"You're not like her. She's mental." (Cheating married man)

"You're just butthurt that X PREDATOR picked me!" (Defenders of cheating married people, throughout history)

"If I had an invisible disability, I'd never tell anyone I was ASD! You're lucky." (Stranger)

"You're too broken for me to help you." (Therapist)

"We can't bring your psychiatrist appointment forward any further. No, we know you just tried to kill yourself, but five days from now is the best we can do." (NHS)

"I think you're just very intelligent, I don't think you need a meds review or to see a psychiatrist." (Social worker, NHS)

"We gave you physio once and it didn't work, so I'm afraid you can't have it again." (NHS)

"Yes, we have to cut your care hours again. We either don't know or don't care that you're getting ill from living in a filthy house." (Local council)

"A new catheter fitting operation is going to be an 8 month wait. We're aware that you get so many UTIs that leaving the house is hard." (NHS)

"Boys don't get eating disorders." (Media, older generation, take your pick)

"Only intelligent people get eating disorders." (GP)

"Can't you just toughen up?" (Take your pick)

"You can't sexually assault a man." (Media, older generation, women, so-called friends....)

"Other people have it much worse, you know." (EVERYONE, EVER!!)